R&B singer R. Kelly underwent emergency throat surgery last night (July 19), and his publicist says he will be laid up indefinitely.
Publicity agency 42 West said Kelly underwent surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Tuesday to have an abscess on one of his tonsils drained.
While in Chicago, he went to a throat specialist early Tuesday with a severe sore throat, and was rushed to the hospital for surgery following an exam.
Kelly just finished the U.S. leg of his worldwide “Love Letter” tour, but it is not known when he can go back to performing, 42 West said.
R. Kelly (real name Robert Sylvester Kelly) was in the headlines just last week for a $2.9 million foreclosure lawsuit on his Chicago house in south suburban Olympia Fields.
Crain’s Chicago Real Estate Daily reported that Kelly had not made a monthly mortgage payment since June of 2010 on the mansion, located on Maros Lane. Thus, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank N.A. filed a foreclosure complaint in the Cook County Circuit Court last month, Crain’s reported.
A new scandal has also dogged Kelly. Last month, his former manager Jeff Kwatinetz sued him for $1 million, on the grounds that Kelly used Kwatinetz’s commission to settle sexual misconduct allegations.
Most notoriously, R. Kelly was acquitted in 2008 of child pornography charges, after being accused of videotaping himself having sex with and urinating on an underage girl. The case took six years to go to trial.
R. Kelly and his wife Andrea were officially divorced in Jan. 2009, after 13 years of marriage. They share custody of their three children.
His wife stood by his side throughout the child pornography ordeal, but filed for divorce shortly after he was acquitted.
